Mascle, J., Lohmann, G.P., and Moullade, M. (Eds.), 1998 Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, Vol. 159 2. DEFORMATION PATTERNS AND TECTONIC REGIMES OF THE CÔTE D’IVOIRE-GHANA TRANSFORM MARGIN AS DEDUCED FROM LEG 159 RESULTS1 Jean Benkhelil,2 Jean Mascle,3 and Caroline Huguen2 ABSTRACT During the Early Cretaceous, the African and South American plates separated in their equatorial domain along wide trans- form zones made of a series of pull-apart basins including rifted and transform segments. The rifted Deep Ivorian Basin, and its southern border, the future Transform Margin studied during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 159, were areas of thick continental sedimentation from the latest Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. In Albian and early Cenomanian times, clastic sedimentation per- sisted in a progressively deepening marine environment. The newly created Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Marginal Ridge (CIGMR) was eroded during part of the Cenomanian as a consequence of a tectonic uplift and subsequent emersion. A strong unconfor- mity, recorded between the latest Albian and early Turonian at all Leg 159 sites, denotes a radical change in sedimentation, which became typically biogenic (shallow carbonates) during the Late Cretaceous. The Early Cretaceous to Albian thick clastic wedge, which constitutes the CIGMR, has recorded various tectonic deforma- tions that reflect different states of stresses successively prevailing during the marginal ridge formation. Early deformations clearly relate to synsedimentary mass sliding, water-escape structures, presumably triggered by earthquakes, and to dewatering cleavage, itself a consequence of dewatering processes. Synsedimentary listric normal faults have recorded collapses, differen- tial sedimentary loading, and compaction. In more lithified sediments, sets of small-scale normal faults created a pattern of horst and graben microstructures denoting a period of extensional regime prior to a general tilting of strata. A complex micro- faulting pattern made of reverse and normal faults, associated with asymmetric microfolds and attributed to a parallel to bed- ding shear, is interpreted as the consequence of a progressive tectonic uplift of the CIGMR active during Albian times. The creation of the CIGMR thus appears to result from the combined effects of wrench tectonics and accompanying conti- nental stretching and heating. On top of the marginal ridge, transpressive activity is well attested at Sites 960, 961, and 962, by shear faults showing vertical slickensides and associated crenulation and nascent cleavage. Below the Cenomanian uncon- formity, fractures are commonly filled with minerals such as calcite, kaolinite, quartz, pyrite, barite, and siderite, indicating that hydrothermal circulations mainly occurred during Albian to Cenomanian time span. The deformational history of the CIGMR may tentatively be summarized into four main stages: 1. An Early Cretaceous rifting stage, which created the rifted Deep Ivorian Basin, during which extensional synsedimentary deformations prevailed. 2. An Aptian–Albian syntransform stage during which a transcurrent activity along the rifted basin southern border lead to the formation of pull-apart basins. Incipient shear zones produced unstable conditions, and the extensional stresses were pro- gressively vanishing to be progressively replaced by parallel to bedding shear, as a consequence of an early uplift of the CIGMR. 3. A late Albian stage that was contemporaneous with the development of flower structures and with the main uplift phase of the marginal ridge leading its emersion and subsequent erosion. 4. Turonian–Coniacian, in which shallow-water carbonates were deposited on top of the eroded ridge that started to subside progressively; subsidence persisted throughout the Cenozoic. INTRODUCTION environments (Guiraud et al., 1997; Caprona, 1992). Clastic sedi- mentation persisted throughout the Albian and the early Cenomanian According to Guiraud and Bellion (1995) the complete breakup of in a progressively deepening domain (transitional to open marine en- Western Gondwanaland was preceded by several rifting episodes vironments). During part of the Cenomanian, erosion was active on spreading out from the Late Paleozoic to the Early Cretaceous times. the newly created Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Transform Marginal Ridge Along the future Equatorial Atlantic margins the onset of rifting may (CIGMR) as a consequence of its uplift and subsequent emersion. An have occurred during the Late Jurassic. Most of the sedimentary unconformity, recorded between the latest Albian and early Turonian coastal basins were initiated during earliest Neocomian as a series of at all Leg 159 sites, denotes a drastic change in sedimentation, which grabens and pull-apart basins created within rifted and transform seg- became typically biogenic (shallow carbonates) during the Late Cre- ments of wide transform zones active between the African and South taceous. American plates. The rifted Deep Ivorian Basin and its southern bor- It has been postulated that tectonic regimes change both in space der, the future Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Transform Margin, were areas of and time during the development of rifted transform margins, thick continental sedimentation deposited in lacustrine and prodeltaic (Mascle and Blarez, 1987; Basile et al., 1993) and analogue modeling (Basile, 1990; Basile et al., 1992) has tentatively shown that intersec- tions between rifted basins and continental transforms develop as horsetail terminations during the early deformational stage. In a sec- 1 Mascle, J., Lohmann, G.P., and Moullade, M. (Eds.), 1998. Proc. ODP, Sci. ond stage, the principal displacement zones cut across the horsetail Results, 159: College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program). terminations and wrench tectonics is initiated between the two part- 2 URA-CNRS n°715, Laboratoire de Sédimentologie et Géochimie Marines, Univer- sité de Perpignan, 66860 Perpignan, [email protected] ing continents. Such an active transcurrent contact persists after final 3 UMR Géosciences Azur, BP n°48, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer, France. continental separation at the level of continent/ocean transform fault- 13 J. BENKHELIL, J. MASCLE, C. HUGUEN ing. In this schematic model, transform marginal ridges are created account previous geophysical (seismic reflection profiles) and geo- mainly as the result of wrench tectonic uplift during the second stage. logical (in situ observations) data, is to test the hypothesis of a four- The above model is based on the CIGMR, and before Leg 159 was stage evolutionary model for the Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana Transform partly supported by two data sets: (1) the interpretations, on seismic Margin as proposed by Mascle and Blarez (1987) and later developed reflection profiles, of rotated blocks, half-grabens, folds, and “flow- by Basile (1990) on the basis of experimental modeling. er” structures (Basile, 1990; Basile et al., 1993) and (2) in situ obser- vations and microstructural analysis from deep-sea dives performed along the CIGMR southern slope (Mascle et al., 1993; Benkhelil et DEFORMATION RECORDED IN LEG 159 HOLES al., 1996). Available geophysical data consist of single-channel and multi- Previous seismic interpretations and later in situ observations channel seismic reflection profiles mainly from the Equamarge and made during deep dives have clearly shown that most of the thick Equasis surveys (Mascle and Blarez, 1987; Mascle et al., 1989; sedimentary wedge, which forms the CIGMR, is deformed. A wide Lamarche et al., 1997), and gravity and magnetic measurements range of structures was observed in soft sediments and in brittle rocks (Pontoise et al., 1990). Processing and interpretations of these data (Benkhelil et al., 1996) that indicate extension and compression to have allowed us to propose an acoustic stratigraphy, including six strike-slip deformation. Such deformation types relate to various tec- main units, and have shown that the basal unit was deformed under tonic processes that occurred during the deposition and/or lithifica- extension and strike-slip regimes (Basile et al., 1993). The crustal tion of the Cretaceous sediments. structure of the CIGMR and of the adjacent Deep Ivorian Basin have Leg 159 rock samples allow an interpretation of the succession of been worked out by Sage (1994) using wide-angle seismic data. Be- tectonic events that occurred from the time of deposition of basal low the Deep Ivorian Basin the continental crust shows a standard units in the Early Cretaceous to the time of ridge uplift, in the Late progressive thinning toward the deep ocean. Comparable thinning of Cretaceous. We first describe the sedimentary-induced deformations the crust characterizes the marginal ridge along an east-west section, generated in soft sediments, and then the tectonic-related deforma- but the continent–ocean transition, between the continental rooted tions, which occurred in more lithified sediments. ridge and the southern oceanic crust, is particularly narrow, in the or- der of 10 km (Sage et al., 1997). Hole 959D The 14 dives made across the southern CIGMR slope, just a few miles south of Sites 960 and 961 (Mascle et al., 1993; Guiraud et al., Hole 959D documents a 1159-m-thick sedimentary column divid- 1997), have demonstrated that the entire continental slope consists of ed into five main lithologic units. Deformational structures have been Early Cretaceous clastics, deposited in a prodeltaic environment (in- observed in lithologic Unit III, mainly